


Assumption is the Root of All Evil

by marieshens



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Identity Issues, Identity Reveal, Lots of Angst, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Miscommunication, Stupid decisions, but they work it out in the end, lots of misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-25 23:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17734625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marieshens/pseuds/marieshens
Summary: Marinette is angry with Chat Noir.Angry because after Hawkmoth's defeat, he gave her his ring and a letter that doesn't really explain anything at all.Angry because she wanted to meet the boy under the mask after all these years and now she never will.Angry because she misses him....Angry because she still goes out every night to look for him, and her relationship with Adrien is slowly but surely crumbling under the weight of the secrets they both keep. After all, she can't tell Adrien the truth of who she is.Not until she tells Chat.





	1. Chapter 1

After Hawkmoth is defeated, after the battle and the villain’s reveal and the shock that follows, after the trial and the sentence and the heart attack that steals Gabriel away before he has served a single day of it – as if the steel determination that had held him together all these years had finally lost hope- after all of that, Chat Noir slips in through the open window of his one-bedroom apartment and detransforms. He sits on the couch, head in hands, staring into nothing.

He is grieving for his father, of course, but mostly he is grieving the man that Gabriel should have been and not the one he was. Grimly Adrien reflects on how much more bitter the reveal would have been if he had still been fourteen and believed that with enough effort he could earn his father’s love. He has given up on Gabriel long ago, and that should make this loss hurt less.

It doesn’t.

It is not so much that his father is dead. It is that he is- was- Hawkmoth, Adrien’s enemy, the man he devoted years of his life to vanquishing. It is a betrayal of the worst kind.  
Adrien, twisting the ring around and around on his finger, wonders if supervillany runs in the family.

It is an idle thought at first, but it sticks and festers in the silence. After all, he has always known he is not the hero of this story. He has the powers of destruction and the emblem of bad luck. By rights, he should be a villain or at least an anti-hero, not the cocky sidekick or charming love interest he tries to be.

His mouth twists wryly at the word ‘sidekick’. Ladybug would berate him for that, he knows. She thinks he says it self-deprecatingly, and to some degree she is right, but she forgets that Adrien too has spoken to the Guardian and the kwami and he knows some secrets that even she is not privy to. He knows that if they had access to their full powers, Ladybug and Chat Noir would be evenly matched to within a hair’s breadth and that hair’s breadth would make him the victor. He knows that the powers of the Black Cat are more formidable and terrifying than either of them imagined. And he knows why this is, why he exists at all, why it is so crucial that he is always beside Ladybug no matter how it might seem she does not need him. 

It is because he is the only one who would stand a chance against a Ladybug gone rogue. 

After all, Plagg told him, creation is not always good. Trees growing too fast deprive saplings of sunlight. A cell dividing too fast becomes a cancer. And once in a blue moon, a Ladybug decides to use her powers for selfish means-

And it becomes up to Chat Noir to destroy her.

Adrien is never going to destroy his Lady. He knows that he is not capable of it with the same certainty he knows the sun will rise each morning. His destiny is to be her support, not her foil; he swore once to save her, defend her, champion her, every day of their lives even if she never spared him so much as a glance.

But that was before he knew who he was.

He wonders what Ladybug would think of him now. Would she see her partner, her friend? Or would she see Hawkmoth’s son? Ladybug is many things but she is not faultless. She leaps to conclusions and judgements as easily as she leaps between buildings. Her fury is as likely as her forgiveness, and Adrien cannot bear that- the idea that she would brush aside five years of their partnership and look at him with condemnation. Gabriel may not have taken their miraculouses but he has destroyed their team even so. 

Adrien knows, has known since Hawkmoth’s reveal, that there is only one way any of this will end, and it is not with Ladybug loving him and all their secrets revealed. With his father dead there are no more akumas and he has the freedom he always craved. Being Chat, then, is more an indulgence than a necessity. He is good at giving up indulgences.

Slowly and deliberately, despite Plagg’s garbled protest, he takes off the ring and the kwami is sucked inside. Adrien sets it on the desk, pulls up a blank document on his computer, and begins to type. It is a different grief that overtakes him then, one that makes his hands shake and his vision go blurry. It is a grief for Chat Noir and all the futures that will never be.


	2. Chapter 2

Alya is used to receiving packages. There’s the internet shopping she does, of course, and all the fan mail the Ladyblog receives. The packages, however, are usually delivered to the front door of the apartment she shares with Nino and Marinette.  
Not her bed.  
The window above her headboard is still cracked open, curtains fluttering in the faint breeze as if to taunt her. She approaches the box with caution.  
It looks like more of a gift than a delivery, wrapped in matte black paper with a faint green background design. Chat Noir themed paper. A black envelope attached to the top says her name in swirling golden cursive, a fair sight classier than most of the fanmail she receives. She tears it open and skims through the letter.

When she reaches the end of the message she goes back and reads it again, hoping a second read will make it mean something else. It doesn’t.

_Dear Alya,_

_Over the years you have proved yourself more than trustworthy to both Ladybug and I, as a civilian, a reporter and a teammate. That is why I am entrusting you with this._

_Inside the package is another letter and a Miraculous box. They are both for Ladybug, and I trust that you will find some way of discreetly delivering them to her. The box contains my ring. The letter, I hope, goes some way to explaining why I am giving it up. It will not be enough to satisfy her, I fear, but there are secrets that even now I cannot reveal. I hope that in time she will understand._

_I am sorry, Alya. I am truly, deeply sorry. Believe me when I say this was never the way I hoped it would go. The years of being Chat Noir were the best years of my life and one day I dreamed that after Hawkmoth’s defeat the years would be even better- but it is not to be. I know you hoped once for a Ladybug and Chat Noir romance- believe me, I did too- but without our identities I am afraid that will never happen._

_Thank you, Alya. Thank you for being good and brave and passionate. Thank you for always having integrity and for believing in us. I hope that you will continue to be Ladybug’s friend and confidante in my absence. Please thank your friends- our friends- on my behalf: Nino whose loyalty and strength are unquestionable and Marinette whose courage and kindness (and croissants) inspired me every day. Tell Adrien that I at least know he had nothing to do with his father’s reign of terror._

_I will ask you not to share the contents of this letter publicly, but I do not expect you to keep them entirely secret. I of all people know the pain and solitude of secrets. Use your discretion. I trust you. Ladybug’s letter is, of course, for her eyes alone._

_Yours sincerely and regretfully,_

_Chat Noir_

The letter is typed, to the slight disappointment of a girl who always dreamed of uncovering a secret by handwriting analysis, but the signature is another golden flourish. She tears the package open and the contents are exactly as he had said- a letter addressed simply _Ladybug,_ and a small black and red box. When she opens it there is no flash of light or chirping kwami. Only a black ring with a green pawprint, glowing sullenly. Any doubt that the letter is genuine disappears with that sight. Alya shuts the box and stares at the letter again until the words swim in her vision.

Part of her is flattered that Chat trusted her with this but that feeling is more than swallowed up by the hollowness echoing through her. It truly is over. She reaches numbly for her phone. _Use your discretion,_ Chat says, and she will, but he cannot fault her for choosing not to do this alone.

**To: futurefashiondesigner, djdude, sunshineboy**  
From: bloggerqueen  
_Meet me at the apartment in 10. There’s something I need to talk to you about._

She debates writing _THIS IS IMPORTANT,_ but her uncharacteristic capitalisation should get that message across well enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm imagining the kiddos as about 19

Marinette arrives first, of course, because the girl might be chronically late but no one is faster at responding to a friend in need. She’s bursting with questions but Alya tells her to wait. Nino is next, and he hasn’t seen the text but he was only out to get milk anyway.  
Adrien comes last. He is the only one who knocks. Admittedly, he is the only one of them who doesn’t actually live there, but he has a key and they’ve told him again and again that their home is his. There’s a standing offer for him to move in. The apartment is only three bedrooms, but Alya and Nino pretty much only use one anyway and Alya is sure Adrien could do with the company. It can’t be healthy, living alone, especially after everything that has happened. The poor boy has always craved companionship.

When Alya opens the door she sees the dejected slump of Adrien’s shoulders and for a moment regrets inviting him. Perhaps being reminded of the superheroes that captured his father is the last thing he needs right now and it is not as if Chat was entirely complimentary about Adrien in his letter the way he was about the others.  
Adrien lifts his head to look at her and she swears she has never seen a shade of green more desolate. “Thank you for including me,” he says, as if he already knows what she has brought them together for. His voice is colourless but he’s _trying,_ and her heart breaks again for this sad and lonely boy who has lost so much. She hugs him on impulse and he stiffens but she can tell he needs this, this simple warmth and comfort that has been so lacking in his life. He is nearly a head taller than her and she wonders when he grew up without them noticing.

“You’re always included,” she says. “But I don’t know… I don’t know if this is going to be good news.”  
She lets him go and stares up at him. He nods and again she gets the feeling he knows what all this is about.

“That’s alright. Are the others here?”

“Yes. You’re the last to arrive.” She squeezes his hand for reassurance and leads him into the small but cozy living room.

Marinette, bless her heart, has always been good at sensing what Adrien needs. She jumps up as soon as he steps into the room and all but attaches herself to him, flinging her arms around him as if all by her tiny self she could protect him from the awfulness of the world. She has been like this ever since Hawkmoth’s reveal, Alya knows, and while she can’t bring herself to be glad that it took the outing of Gabriel as a supervillain for Marinette to overcome her shyness she is still grateful for Adrien’s sake. He needs someone on his side. She watches the way his muscles slacken as he returns the embrace and the shine to his eyes just before he buries his face in Marinette’s soft, strawberry-smelling hair. Alya gently guides them to a couch and disappears into her bedroom.

She emerges carrying the letter and Chat’s miraculous box. Nino’s eyes go wide and she sees his gaze flicker to Adrien and Marinette, as if he suspects she’s about to out herself as Rena Rouge. Her mouth twists. She might do that, too- Chat’s letter is hardly subtle about her identity- but this is going to be much worse.

Marinette stares at her. She doesn’t look so much surprised as… confused.   
“What is that?” she says, pointing.

“It’s a miraculous box.”

“Yes, I knew that,” Marinette says testily, and Alya was _not_ expecting testiness from her friend. “ _Which_ miraculous box?”

“Chat’s,” Alya says, and clicks the box open so they can see the ring nestled inside.   
The short, sharp cry that escapes from Marinette’s throat is not human. Adrien stiffens and curls an arm around her shoulders, but Marinette is not to be reassured.

“Where did you get that?” she demands. “Where is Chat? Is he dead? Is he hurt?”

“He’s fine,” Alya says, drawing back a little at the intensity with which Marinette hurls the questions. She’s suspected Marinette knows Chat quite well for some time now, even more so after she read what he had to say about her, but this is a new level of desperation from her best friend. “He gave up his miraculous,” she adds, offering Marinette the letter as if it might pacify her.

Too late she realises that it also gives away her identity, but Marinette seems to skim right past that as her eyes fly down the page. Adrien glances over her shoulder at the letter only briefly.  
“No,” Marinette says brokenly when she reaches the end. “No, no, he _can’t_. Stupid cat. Stupid, stupid cat.” She flings the letter away from her and buries her face in her hands. A second later Alya realises she is sobbing, big aching heartbroken sobs. Adrien pats her back awkwardly. Nino’s eyes flick between them and he quietly retrieves the letter as Alya crosses the room to comfort her friend.

Adrien looks at her. “Are you sure you meant to share that letter with us?” he says in a low voice. “It does kind of give away that you’re-“

“Rena Rouge, yes, I know,” she says, dismissing the matter with a wave. It’s done now. “I meant to tell you after Hawkmoth’s defeat anyway, and if Ladybug has a problem with it, well, I’ll deal with that. It’s not as if I have the necklace anyway, so I’m hardly endangering it.”

Marinette stops her sobbing for a moment to look up. “Always knew you were a h-hero, Al,” she manages, and Alya would grin if it didn’t look as if Marinette’s eyes were about to dissolve with grief.  
“Oh, girl, I’m so sorry,” she murmurs, settling on to the couch beside her so she and Adrien form a Marinette sandwich between them. She lets Marinette rest her head on her shoulder and cry as she awkwardly pats her head.

“Bro.” Nino’s voice cuts through the emotion-charged air as he finishes reading the letter and stares at it as if it has personally offended him. “What does he _mean_ ‘I at least know he had nothing to do with his father’s reign of terror.’ Of course you didn’t, Adrien. Damn catboy needs to get his head out of his arse.”

“It doesn’t matter, Nino,” Adrien says. Nino scowls.

“It _does_. It’s like he’s assuming that everyone else will condemn you for your father’s actions, and he’s placing himself on some pretentious pedestal because he doesn’t. Just because he’s a superhero-“

“He’s not a superhero,” Adrien says flatly.

Few things can stop Marinette crying once she gets started, but that claim is apparently one of them. Her face contorts and for a moment it looks as if she might slap Adrien. Adrien takes one look at her and hastily backtracks.  
“I mean, not anymore, right?” He points at the ring box. “He’s given up everything that made him a hero.”

“If you think that ring is the only thing that made him a hero, you don’t know him at all,” Marinette said hotly.

“ _Nobody_ knows him. That’s the point.”

“Nobody knows him because he doesn’t _let_ anybody know him.”

Adrien gaped. “Ladybug is the one who insists they have to keep their personal lives secret.”

“Because of Hawkmoth. And what happened after Hawkmoth was defeated? He avoided her completely for weeks and then up and gave up his miraculous. _Maybe_ , if he’d talked to her, he would have realised she wanted to reveal identities too. Maybe, if he’d let her, she would have wanted to know him- the real him, underneath the cat ears.”

“Maybe the cat ears is the real him,” Adrien retorted. “Maybe his civilian life is the mask.”

Marinette shook her head. “I don’t know if his civilian life is any more real,” she said, “But I do know that anyone with that much bravado is hiding something. And maybe-“ she took a breath. “Maybe that’s why she could never let herself fall in love with him. Because she couldn’t love someone who couldn’t trust her enough to share what was hurting them.”

“You think he doesn’t trust her?”

“I think he doesn’t trust her enough if he gives up his miraculous without _talking_ to her!” Marinette retorted, glaring at him. He meets her gaze with one equally hard.

“She wouldn’t love him even if he opened his heart and laid it at her feet,” he says. “She’s in love with someone else.”

“Um, what,” Alya interrupts. “Source?”

Adrien blinks as if he had forgotten she was there. “Chat told me.”

“Chat told you.” Alya’s flat tone clearly conveys her disbelief.

“He did,” Adrien insists, a little defensively given how flagrantly he is lying. “He stops by sometimes to talk. We have mutual interests.”

“Like what?” Alya says.

“Like avoiding paparazzi, and being madly in love with Ladybug, and wishing we had decent parents and more than four friends.”

Four? Marinette stills next to Adrien, because if Chat has only four friends, she is willing to bet that she -as Marinette- is one of them, and that she -as Ladybug- is another. And if that letter is to be believed, Nino and Alya are the others. Which means that she alone is half of Chat’s friends and the other two barely know him at all.

Which means that whatever he is dealing with, and it must be something big to make him give up his miraculous, he is dealing with it alone. Her heart, which has been battered and bruised enough already, breaks a little more for her partner.

As she returns her attention to her friends she becomes aware that Nino is asking how the package arrived.  
“The window was open,” Alya says. “I assume he climbed in.” She frowns. “Actually, that makes no sense. Even if he was transformed when he came in, he left the ring behind. It’s a five-storey drop. He wouldn’t have been able to make it as a civilian. He would have needed to let himself out the front door, and the door was locked.”  
Adrien freezes. He should have known his friends were smarter than to fall for that. He opens his mouth to make up some half-assed excuse, but Marinette steps in before he can trip over his own words.  
“He could have snuck in while I was having my shower this morning,” she says. A silence falls as three of them contemplate a masked stranger sneaking into their home without them knowing and Adrien contemplates sinking through the floorboards into oblivion.

“Adrien, dude, are you alright?” Nino breaks them out of their ruminations, staring at Adrien with a concerned frown. “Are you mad?”

“At Chat Noir?”

“No, at us.”

Adrien blinks. “Why would I be mad at you?”

“Uh, because you just found out that Alya and I were part of the team that helped Ladybug and Chat Noir arrest your father?”  
If only they knew. Adrien shakes his head. “Nino, you’ve been threatening my father for years, and that was before you knew he was a supervillain. I’m not mad at you two, or Ladybug. Or Chat Noir,” he adds for completeness when he realises Marinette is about to protest. They are straying into dangerous territory and he determines to change the subject. “So, Alya, how are you going to get the ring to Ladybug?”

Alya frowns. “I’m not sure. I might have to make a post asking for a visit. I doubt she’ll keep to her old patrol routes after everything.”

“Or you could leave it for a few days,” Marinette offers. “Who knows, she might decide to stop by your house. She might… sense the ring is here, or something.”

This sounds like rubbish to Nino, who figures identities would have been much easier if that was possible, and even more like rubbish to Adrien who has asked about the existence of that particular power before. Alya’s faith in her heroine, however, is complete, and she isn’t surprised when Ladybug swings by the apartment long after Adrien has left and Nino and Marinette have gone to bed. The heroine takes the box and the letter with a tight-lipped thanks and as she swings out the window, Alya swears she can see her eyes glistening.

A moment later she hears a faint noise from Marinette’s room and she looks in on her. The girl is fast asleep, but her cheeks are streaked with tears and instead of her customary sprawl her body is curled around something small and precious.

When Alya gets closer she realises it is the Chat Noir doll Marinette made all those years ago.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is this fluff doing in my angstfic ugh

Marinette doesn’t give the ring back to Master Fu. She isn’t ready to give up the last remnant of her partner just yet. Instead she buys a long silver chain and wears it as a pendant, tucked beneath her shirt. It stays cool against her skin even in the warmest weather.

And life, as it does, goes on.

She’s seen Adrien so raw and real in the past few weeks that her awkwardness around him begins to seem petty. He needs someone and she is that someone, and as the months go by they grow closer and closer until Adrien is spending more time at her apartment than at his. They share a taste in ridiculous comedy movies that Nino and Alya scorn, and six months after Hawkmoth’s defeat Marinette finds herself dangling off the edge of the couch and giggling as Adrien attempts to toss individual pieces of popcorn into mouth. It’s the end of one of their regular movie nights and Marinette realises now is a good as time as any to ask. So she does.

At first, Adrien doesn’t get it. She loves the boy, but he can be a bit dense.  
“Get dinner together?” he says, frowning. “But we get dinner together all the time.”

Marinette takes a deep breath and fights the urge to backtrack. She clutches at the ring for comfort and it almost feels as if it is vibrating against her skin in reassurance. As if a part of Chat is still there to back her up.

“I meant as a date,” she says, telling herself the butterflies in her stomach are just more akumas she can vanquish. “You and me. Like a couple.”

“Oh,” Adrien says, his eyes widening, and then “Yes. Yes, I’d like that.”

It’s not giving up on Ladybug, he tells himself, because he gave up on Ladybug months ago. He’s choosing Marinette because she is beautiful and kind and funny and maybe he could grow to love her. He’s choosing Marinette because she has made the hardest months of his life just that little bit easier to bear. He’s choosing Marinette because she has chosen him and after everything he just wants to be happy.

It’s the most awkward date either of them have been on. They sit on opposite sides of the restaurant table and pick at their food, trying to avoid eye contact, and their hearts sink in unison.  
On their way home, they detour to walk by the Seine beneath the stars. Marinette spots a dandelion seed-head growing up through a crack in the footpath, miraculously untouched, and snatches it up with a triumphant sound. She hands it to Adrien as they cross a bridge.  
“If you blow on it, you can make a wish,” she tells him. Adrien twirls it thoughtfully, trying not to think about other wishes.

“What should I wish for?” he says, smiling when he sees how excited she is.

“Anything you like.”

“Okay.” He leans over the railing and blows on the seedhead, scattering the tufted seeds in a cloud over the river below.  
“What did you wish for?” Marinette asks. She is tucked right up against him, staring out over the river, so close he can smell the strawberry scent of her hair.  
“For all the TV shows I watch to keep to a regular airing schedule,” he says.

She pokes him. “You did _not_ ,” she says.

He chuckles. “Alright. I wished that I could keep being as happy as I am in this moment.”

“Oh,” Marinette says in a small voice. She peeks up at him from beneath long eyelashes. “You’re happy? Right now?”

“Of course,” he says. “I’m on a date with a beautiful girl who happens to be one of my closest friends, in the city of Paris. What could be better?”

Marinette chews her lip. “I thought this was going badly,” she whispers. “Because over dinner, you didn’t say anything, and I thought-“

“Sorry. I was worried about what you were thinking.”

“I was worried about what _you_ were thinking!”  
He laughs and after a moment Marinette joins in. She rests her head against his shoulder as if it is the most natural thing in the world.  
“Maybe we should stick to movie nights as dates for now,” she says. “That is, if you want to keep-“  
“I want to,” Adrien says quickly, because her laugh is the most beautiful sound in the world and he wants to keep her smiling and laughing and _close_ for as long as he can.

They go back to Marinette’s apartment and although it’s too late to start a movie without disturbing Nino and Alya, they sit on the couch and talk in low voices until the early hours. In the morning Alya finds them curled together like a pair of cats. Their chests rise and fall in steady unison and in their sleep, they are both smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Alternative ending: Marinette makes the dandelion wish instead, and since she has both ring and earrings, it comes true.)
> 
> She blew the seeds off the dandelion head with her eyes closed and they landed on the dark water below like scattered stars. A sudden glow of red and green light encompassed her, causing Adrien to stumble back. When it disappeared Marinette opened her eyes.  
> "It was an accident! I swear!" she yelps.   
> "You used the Miraculous Wish." His eyes narrowed.  
> "It didn't even work!"  
> "Why do you have the ring and the earrings anyway?"  
> There is no answer except the truth that he will accept. She sighed.  
> "Because I'm Ladybug," she said. "Alya gave me the ring." She fumbled for the ring to show it to him, but her hand met only an empty chain. "It's gone," she said, her voice rising in panic. "Where's it gone?"  
> "You made a wish, didn't you?" Tikki said, floating up in front of her. "What did you wish for?"  
> "To have Chat Noir back. But the ring-"  
> "Is right here," Adrien interrupted in an odd tone, holding up his hand and waving it so she could see the silver ring in its rightful place. A familiar disgruntled kwami hovered in front of him.  
> Marinette stared. "Chaton?"  
> "My Lady?"  
> "You stupid cat," she says, her voice cracking, but instead of berating him or blaming him she flings her arms around him. "I'm never going to let you go again," she mumbles into his chest.  
> Adrien is quite alright with that.


	5. Chapter 5

It feels right. That is what Adrien is most sure of, in the early weeks. It feels _right_ to be with Marinette, in a way nothing has felt right in a very long time. He lights up whenever he catches sight of her and sees her brighten whenever she sees him too. The ache from leaving Ladybug might never go away, but being with Marinette soothes that old wound. It feels right when he finally admits that he only goes back to his own apartment to change clothes and he moves all his stuff into the spare bedroom at Marinette’s place. It feels right to come home to the smell of fresh-baked biscuits and pick up his flour dusted girlfriend to spin her around and around until she laughs, and it feels right to wake up early to make stacks of blueberry pancakes so he can surprise Marinette with breakfast in bed on the first free day after a long week designing. He’s happier than he ever thought possible. Alya and Nino declare they are the sappiest, most disgusting couple they have ever seen, but they are smiling when they say it and Adrien wonders if his happiness radiates off him like a visible glow.

Nino’s uncle, a carpenter of some skill, gifts him and Alya a beautiful wooden bedframe and Adrien and Marinette have a brief argument over who should get their old bed which ends with Adrien mumbling “Well, I mean, we could share…”  
Alya lets out a bark of laughter as she overhears this comment and Marinette turns red, but they’ve been dating for months and pretty soon Marinette’s room becomes ‘Marinette’s Sewing Room’, and Adrien’s room becomes ‘Marinette and Adrien’s Room’, and everything feels so right that it hurts. He misses Plagg and fights against going to meet with Ladybug every time she pops up on a livestream, but in spite of everything, he is the happiest he has ever been.

The first time he wakes up and finds Marinette’s side of the bed cold, he assumes she has just gone to get a drink of water. He thinks he might get one too and pads into the kitchen, but it is dark and silent. There is no one in the bathroom or the lounge or the sewing room. The curtain rustles forlornly in the breeze, mocking him. Perhaps she has just gone out for a walk. He lies awake for a long time.  
When she returns hours later, he pretends to be asleep. Her feet are cold and he can smell roses and woodsmoke in her hair. A different perfume clings to her skin. He does not open his eyes.  
As he drifts off to sleep again, he wonders if he imagines Marinette sniffling and the small sob that escapes her.

He doesn’t think much of it the second time it happens. Or the third. But pretty soon it becomes a habit for him to wake up in the early hours, and every time he does, Marinette is gone.  
He doesn’t mind, not really. She isn’t his to keep. If she chooses to go for a walk at night, he worries about her safety, but he can’t stop her.  
He only starts to be concerned when he mentions her midnight walks in an idle comment.  
“I could go with you, you know,” he offers. “If what you want is fresh air, and not just to be alone.”  
Marinette nearly jumps out of her skin. “What are you talking about?” she stammers. “I don’t go for midnight walks. Haha. Why would I do that?”  
She’s lying, he knows she’s lying, and for the life of him he can’t imagine why.

Pretty soon he becomes so attuned to her presence that he wakes when she leaves at one am and can’t get back to sleep until she gets back at three. It is the same time every night, and every night he lies alone for two hours, banishing the sneaking thoughts that tell him that this time she won’t come back at all.   
At one thirty, resigned to another sleepless couple of hours, he rolls over and checks his phone.  
Huh.  
Marinette can’t be the only one sneaking out at night. There’s an update on the Ladyblog.   
_SIGHTING (THREAT LEVEL 0): Ladybug spotted again on the Eiffel Tower._

It’s late and he misses his girlfriend and it is not as if he will be getting back to sleep anyway. He rolls off the bed and pulls on some clothes. The door to the apartment closes silently behind him.

The first time Ladybug sees Adrien in a part of town he has no reason to be in at two am, she assumes he has just gone for a walk. She returns his wave and goes back to her perch on the Eiffel Tower. It’s a small hope that Chat will show up, but she can’t help but imagine him rushing up, golden hair awry, green eyes shining, maskless but still the same boy. She’ll recognise him, she knows. She’ll swing down and swoop him up and carry them somewhere far away before she gives him back his ring again.  
She’s angry with him, furious, but she’d forgive him anything if he just came back to her.

She doesn’t think much of Adrien’s late night walks the second time she sees him. Or the third. But pretty soon she’s seeing him every time she’s out, and a worm of concern begins to niggle at her. Why is he out? What is he looking for? She might not have any right to stop him, but shouldn’t he at least mention where he’s going? Sometimes when they are together she catches him staring off into the distance, a wistful look on his face, and she wonders what he is imagining and whether it is better than what she can offer him.

She asks him about his late night walks one day and he starts guiltily.   
“Oh,” he says. “I just need some fresh air sometimes. I don’t go far.”  
Which is a lie, but she can’t tell him why she knows it’s a lie, because it is not Marinette but Ladybug who sees him on his expeditions. She presses her lips together and turns away, and for the first time in months they go to sleep without saying a word to each other.

She doesn’t have any right to be defensive, Adrien thinks as he lies awake in the dark. She started disappearing first. She still hasn’t explained where she goes or even that she does, and coming from the honest Marinette everything about that feels wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh no


End file.
